Bloodline Secrecy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 2), Lan Chan [readict TXT] 📗

I couldn’t have been more surprised if a demon jumped out of her body and tried to strangle me. “Come again?”

“I know the other students have been making you feel a little unwelcome.” I coughed to cover up the strangled sound I made. She waited until my fit subsided. “I will interject at any time if you want me to. But I have a feeling you’re not the type to come running for somebody else to solve your problems for you.”

“Sometimes it would be nice to be that person,” I said.

“Yes, it would. It works for some. For people like us?” She shook her head. “It’s never going to happen. Which is why I don’t like the thought of asking you this because I know what your answer will be. And I still don’t know how I feel about it. The board would like to offer you a guard position. Given your unique abilities, they think it might be beneficial to have you watch over the school.”

My jaw was metaphorically scraping against the navy-blue carpet in her office. “Are you serious?” I didn’t know whether I had heard right. “I mean, I’m only seventeen.”

“Is age restrictive to you?” Jacqueline asked. “Because you’ve been attending classes for students who are older than you for over six months.”

“Yes, but a class is one thing. A job is another.”

“That’s right. It is. A job will require you to put everything you’ve learned into practice. Though from what I saw on Saturday, you don’t seem to have a problem with that.”

I weaved my hands together in front of me to stop them from shaking. “I don’t know,” I said. I knew I’d been training for this. To eventually become a productive member of magical society. But there was a part of me that was also still a little bit scared that one day I would wake up and it would all be gone. That I would be inside a padded cell in Nanna’s psychiatric hospital.

“It isn’t forever, Lex,” Jacqueline said. “It’s a temporary measure. Until we can figure out a way to neutralise the Soul Sisterhood threat. If it helps, you’re not the only low-magic user who will be asked to help.”

I was immediately on high alert. “Sophie?”

She nodded. “Her parents have been contacted by the board.”

I struggled to think of Sophie being placed in that kind of danger. I could only imagine what Nora would have to say about the whole situation.

“I don’t have a guardian,” I said absently. It was no wonder that Jacqueline always had to have these chats with me.

“Nora Mwansa tried to railroad the board on your behalf,” she said. “But there are no legal or familial ties between you. The best thing we could come up with is that Azrael might be contacted, but…well…you can imagine nobody is very keen to go down that road. So I’ve spoken to the board and impressed on them that you are mature enough to make a decision like this on your own. You will be duly compensated, of course.”

Suddenly my antennae were buzzing. “I’ll get paid?”

“Of course. It is a job, after all. A particularly dangerous one at that. We wouldn’t even think about asking you to perform something like that without reimbursing you.”

“Can I have some time to think about it?”

“Of course.”

I bit my bottom lip. “One of the Sisterhood told me the reason the Council believe them all dead was because they were hunted down after the war,” I said. It occurred to me Jacqueline might have been there when it happened. “Do you know anything about that?”

Her brow furrowed. She glanced down at a long scar that reached between her thumb and forefinger on her left hand. “It was a fraught time,” she said. “There was much confusion. If the Council had ordered a cull, it would explain why the Sisterhood are now targeting them.” She brushed her fingers through her hair in a gesture that reminded me a lot Kai. It didn’t sit well that she was contemplating what I’d said. It would have made things a lot easier if she had denied it. This made things morally ambiguous. Or at least confusing as she had said.

“So they killed the Sisterhood and then tried to wipe them from the history books.”

“We don’t know that for sure.” The disturbed look in her eyes told me a different story.

I was getting up to leave when she caught my hand. “Lex,” she said. Her face softened. “Thank you. What you did for my grandson…”

“Please don’t,” I said, tugging away because there were tears threatening to spill from my eyes. “I can’t really talk about it.” So far, I’d succeeded in not thinking about what might have happened if the Sisterhood had managed to tear apart his soul.

She nodded at me. After that, I didn’t really feel like going to my afternoon classes.

I didn’t really feel like doing anything, so I went back to the dorm room and told Basil what Jacqueline had asked me.

“How much are you getting paid?” Basil asked.

“I didn’t really get to that,” I mentioned.

As a doll with no peripheral vision, he had to turn his head whenever he wanted to look in any direction. It made being stealthy difficult.

“Do you have something important to do on the MirrorNet?” I asked, noting the way his head kept turning towards the mirror.

“I was going to see what news there is from the mortal world,” he said.

“Do what you have to do,” I said. “I’m going to sleep until dinner.”

“You’re not just going to lie there the whole time, are you?”

I waved him away. “Don’t even think about me. I’m not really here.”

He was giving me a look like I was seriously cramping his style. But the events of the last few days were catching up with me. I lay my head on the pillow. Before I could even blink more than five times, I was out.

24

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